Home Linguistics & Semiotics Language learning, polylanguaging and speaker perspectives
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Language learning, polylanguaging and speaker perspectives

  • Ursula Ritzau EMAIL logo and Lian Malai Madsen
Published/Copyright: August 24, 2016

Abstract

Sociolinguists have recently suggested a range of new terms to re-conceptualise language and language use. Most of these are based on the empirical documentation of speakers using linguistically hybrid constructions which are understood as reflecting speakers’ orientation to norms of linguistic hybridity. In this article we bring data typical of SLA research and sociolinguistic theorisation together by discussing data collected among Swiss German university students learning Danish in the light of such sociolinguistic concepts. We show how in some cases, the students signal investment in and alignment with hybrid language use, but in others the students “polylanguage” from a form-analytic point of view, while the co- and context suggest they orient strongly to an idea of “pure” Danish. In these cases their hybrid linguistic productions are more likely to be explained by their status as language learners. We argue that these observations point to the need for a closer consideration of speaker stances towards language forms as well as a need for considering repertoire restrictions and learner ambitions in current sociolinguistic conceptualisations of linguistic hybridity.

Transcription key

B005

Informant number

Com

Comments on pronunciation

Italics

Utterances in German, English or French

bold

Hybrid language forms

()

Paraverbal communication

xxx

Unintelligible speech

:

Length

olowo

Low volume compared to surrounding speech

Ha

Laughter

#

Pause

< >

Overlapping speech

[>]

Overlap with following utterance

[<]

Overlap with preceding utterance

References

Baker, Colin. 2011. Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism, 5th edn. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Search in Google Scholar

Becker, Alton L. 1988. Language in particular: A lecture. In Deborah Tannen (ed.), Linguistics in Context, 17–35. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Search in Google Scholar

Blackledge, Adrian & Angela Creese. 2010. Multilingualism: A critical perspective. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar

Blackledge, Adrian & Angela Creese. 2014. Heteroglossia as practice and edagogy. London: Springer.10.1007/978-94-007-7856-6Search in Google Scholar

Blommaert, Jan & Ben Rampton. 2011. Language and superdiversity: A position paper. Diversities 13(2). 1–22.Search in Google Scholar

Butler, Judith.1993. Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits on ‘sex’. New York and London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Cameron, Deborah & Don Kulick (eds.). 2006. The language and sexuality reader. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203013373Search in Google Scholar

Charmaz, Kathy. 2006. Constructing grounded theory. London: Sage.10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosg070Search in Google Scholar

Coupland, Nikolas. 2007. Style. Language variation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511755064Search in Google Scholar

García, Ofelia & Li Wei. 2014. Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137385765Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1974. Frame analysis: An essay on the organisation of experience. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Gumperz, John. 1982. Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511611834Search in Google Scholar

Jaffe, Alexandra. 2009. Stance. Sociolinguistic perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331646.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Jaspers, Jürgen. 2014. Stylisations as teacher practice. Language in Society 43(4). 371–393.10.1017/S0047404514000360Search in Google Scholar

Jørgensen, Jens Normann. 2008. Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of Multilingualism 5(3). 161–176.10.1080/14790710802387562Search in Google Scholar

Jørgensen, Jens Normann. 2010. Languaging. Nine years of poly-lingual development of Turkish-Danish grade school students, vol. 1–2. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen.Search in Google Scholar

Jørgensen, Jens Normann, Martha Sif Karrebæk, Lian Malai Madsen & Janus Spindler Møller. 2011. Polylanguaging in Superdiversity. Diversities 13(2). 23–37.Search in Google Scholar

Jørgensen, Jens Normann & Janus Spindler Møller. 2014. Polylingualism and languaging. In Constant Leung & Brian V. Street (eds.), The Routledge Companion to English Studies, 67–83. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Kiesling, Scott F. 2011. Stance in context: Affect, alignment and investment in the analysis of stancetaking. Presented at the iMean conference, 15 April 2011. The University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.Search in Google Scholar

Wei, Li. 2011. Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics 43(5). 1222–1235.10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035Search in Google Scholar

Maher, John 2005. Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of cool. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 11. 83–102.10.1515/ijsl.2005.2005.175-176.83Search in Google Scholar

Møller, Janus Spindler. 2008. Polylingual performance among Turkish-Danes in late-modern Copenhagen. International Journal of Multilingualism 5(3). 217–236.10.1080/14790710802390178Search in Google Scholar

Nunan, David. 1991. Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL Quarterly 25(2). 279–295.10.4324/9780203096888-8Search in Google Scholar

Otsuji, Emi & Alastair Pennycook. 2010. Metrolingualism: Fixity, fluidity and language influx. International Journal of Multilingualism 7. 240–254.10.1080/14790710903414331Search in Google Scholar

Otsuji, Emi & Alastair Pennycook. 2014. Unremarkable hybridities and metrolingual practices. In Rani Rubdy & Lubna Alsagoff (eds.), The global-local interface, language choice and hybridity, 83–99. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.10.21832/9781783090860-006Search in Google Scholar

Pennycook, Alastair. 2010. Language as a local practice. London: Routledge10.4324/9780203846223Search in Google Scholar

Rampton, Ben. 1995. Crossing. Language and ethnicity among adolescents. London: Longman.Search in Google Scholar

Rampton, Ben. 2013. Drilling down to the grain in superdiversity. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies 98.Search in Google Scholar

Ritzau, Ursula. 2013. A Qualitative investigation of the dynamics and complexity of language learner beliefs through written protocols. Linguistik Online. 61. http://www.linguistik-online.de/61_13/ritzau.html (accessed 13 July 2015).10.13092/lo.61.1278Search in Google Scholar

Ritzau, Ursula. 2014. New notions in a classic classroom. Applying postmodern sociolinguistics and socially informed SLA to foreign language learner data. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen Ph.D. thesis.Search in Google Scholar

Ritzau, Ursula. 2015a. Learner language and polylanguaging. How language students’ ideologies relate to their written language use. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 18(6). 660–675.10.1080/13670050.2014.936822Search in Google Scholar

Ritzau, Ursula. 2015b. From form-focussed to communicative. How university students change their beliefs about learning a foreign language. The Language Learning Journal. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09571736.2015.1046086?journalCode=rllj20#.VaO98ucW5Rk (accessed 13 July 2015).10.1080/09571736.2015.1046086Search in Google Scholar

Selinker, Larry. 1972. Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics 10. 209–241.10.1515/iral.1972.10.1-4.209Search in Google Scholar

Silverstein, Michael. 1985. Language and the culture of gender. In Elisabeth Mertz & Richard Parmentier (eds.), Semiotic mediation, 219–259. New York: Academic Press.10.1016/B978-0-12-491280-9.50016-9Search in Google Scholar

Vikør, Lars. 1993. The Nordic languages. Their status and interrelations. Oslo: Novus.Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2016-8-24
Published in Print: 2016-9-1

©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton

Downloaded on 31.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2016-0013/pdf
Scroll to top button